Ornamental material and method for making same



Aug. 18, 1959 v c. KLEIN 2,900,270

ORNAMENTAL MATERIALAND METHOD FOR MAKING SAME Filed May 4, 1956INVENTOR. CHARLES KLEIN Pia/u!" 73M A T TORNTEYS Unim SW a n iORNAMENTAL MATERIAL AND METHOD FOR MAKING SAME Application May 4, 1956,Serial No. 582,828

9 Claims. c1. 117-25 This invention relates to an improved flocked pilefabric and to the method of making the same.

It has long been customary to make flock pile fabric by adhesivelycoating a base fabric, depositing pile forming flock fibres thereon,causing the flock fibres to stand erectly on end by static electricitywhereby their adjacent lower ends are firmly secured in the adhesivecoating and then to set the adhesive by heat or otherwise, whereby thefinished fabric has an upstanding pile and a suede or velvet-liketexture. It has heretofore been proposed to secure ornamentation on sucha fabric by depositing a mixture of colored flock fibres on the adhesivecoating or by coating the adhesive in a pattern .and depositingdifferent colored flock fibres on various portions of the patternedadhesive coating. As far as I am aware, however, ornamentation byvarying the texture of the pile fabric as well as varying the color ofthe flock has not been previously accomplished, or if accomplished hasproduced an unsuccessful and com- .mercially unacceptable fabric.

It is the object of this invention to produce a new .ornamented flocktype fabric wherein the texture includes a plurality of clumps ofintermingled fibres firmly secured in the adhesive layer and having anunnapped, smooth texture as contrasted to the suede or velvet texture ofordinary flock pile fabric.

Another object of the invention is to produce a new ornamentedflock-type fabric wherein ornamentation is secured by a predeterminedsurface design primarily formed by areas of upstanding fibres andsecondarily formed by areas of intermingled clumps of recumbent -fibres.

. A further object of the invention is to produce a flocktype fabrichaving design portions formedby clumps of recumbent, unidirectional,colored fibres so firmly secured and bonded to the base fabric that theycannot be pulled off and will not drop oif even after prolonged use -andunusual stress and strain.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for makingthe above mentioned flock type fabric which is simple, inexpensive andusable on present flocking machines without requiring additionalcoating, ex-

' a desirable design.

Another object of the iinvention is to provide a method of making flockfibres wherein, instead, of seeking to thoroughly dry thev fibres priorto depositing them on itheadhesive coating, clumps of intermingledfibresof a predetermined moisture content, preferably about fifty per cent,are intentionally deposited onthe adhesivecoat- Patented Aug. 18, 1959 Afurther object of the invention is to provide clumps of fibres firmlysecured and bonded to a backing sheet or base fabric, wherein the clumpsare made up of randomly intermingled fibres rather than uniformlytwisted fibres as in yarn or thread and wherein the clump is lying downflatwise on the adhesive coating rather than standing on end in themanner of a pile fibre.

In the drawing:

Figures 1 to 5 are diagrammatic representations of the preferred stepsof the process of this invention.

Fig. 1 illustrates the wet or liquid dyeing of the flock fibres in a dyekettle.

Fig. 2 illustrates the rinsing of the dyed fibre clumps.

Fig. 3 illustrates the drying of the dyed and rinsed fibre clumps to apredetermined moisture content in a centrifuge.

Fig. 4 illustrates the screeningof the wet clumps to secure apredetermined size or range of sizes thereof.

Fig. 5 illustrates diagrammatically a typical flocking machine withmechanism added thereto for depositing the wet fibre clumps on theadhesive coating prior to depositing the dry flock fibres thereon.

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic perspective view greatly enlarged showing oneform of the improved flock fabric of this invention.

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 of another fabric design achieved bythe invention.

Fig. 8 isan enlarged fragmentary diagramatic sectional view showing thebonding of the clumps and flock fibres.

Fig. 9 is'a fragmentary plan view of another fabric design whereinclumps partially or entirely cover the base sheet or web.

In the drawing a typical flock coating machine, well known in the trade,is diagrammatically shown to infabric in roll form, the web of basefabric being designated 20. Web 20 passes over suitable idler rolls suchas 21 and is advanced under or through the apparatus shown, by anysuitable means, to become the finished .flocked fabric 22 shown passingover idler roll 23 and .wound on roll J.

A suitable coating device B which may be a trough, doctor blade orapplicator roll is fed with a settable adhesive, in liquid or tackyform, from a source 24 and applies a layer of adhesive coating25 on theupper face of the base fabric web 20. The clump depositing apparatus 27required by the novel method of this invention is positioned in rear ofthe adhesive coating device B and in advance of. the usual flock piledepositing apparatus C. Any suitable adhesive, well known in the flockcoating trade may be used, for example, rubber, as suggested in U.S.Patent 2,128,811 to Foster of August 30, 1938.

Apparatus 27 preferably comprises a hopper 28 hav- .ing an apertured orscreened bottom member 29, the: member 29 being mounted for translatoryor rotary lower portion of each clump tends to embed itself well intothe viscous or tacky coating to secure a firm grip thereon. It ispossible that the weight added to the clumps by reason'of their wetnessisrespons'ible fortheir 7 remaining tightly adhered inthe adhesive orthat the ring; with the liquid serving: to. bondihefibres together inthe clumps.

liquidity of the clumps enables the adhesive to better -bond;with thefibres thereof. In .anycase, the wet.clumps not, only become firmlysecured but, because. they are intermingled and interlocked to eachother and to the fibres embedded in the coating, have no substantialtendency to loosen into a napped texture or to become erect under theinfluence of the vertical pile forming apparatus of the machine.

The vertical pile forming apparatus of the machine is Wellknown'andincludes the flock pile-depositing ap paratus'C which dropsamultiplicity of short, individual', thoroughly dried, flock fibres 32on the adhesive coating 25. The fibres 32 are caused to stand erect onend by a polygonalroll E which creates static electricity by vibratingthe web 20 or by other electrostatic mechanism. equally well known andnot shown. Most of the fibres '32 thus have their lower ends firmlysecured in the adhesive 25 andform an erect pile entirely covering theweb 20 except in the areas occupied by the wet clumps 30. The surplusfibres 32 are drawn off by a suitable suction mouth and duct D wherebythe ornamentation on the web 20 comprises the suede or velvet-liketexture of the pile fibres 32 and the unnapped, smooth texture of theclumps 30 the latter usually being somewhat lustrous.

An additional pile fibre depositing apparatus F, static producingpolygonal roll H and suction mouth G is usually provided to assure thatthe web 20 is thoroughly covered with pile fibres 32. The web 20 withits adhesive coating 25, its preferably predominate background or basetexture of vertical pile fibres 32 and its preferably subordinatecontrasting texture of clumps 30 then passes through an oven I whereinthe adhesive is set by heat. The finished goods 22 are then continuouslywound on the roll I and constitute the improved flocked pile fabric ofthe invention.

Figs. 1-4 have been arranged in the drawing to show the steps in themethod of forming the wet clumps 30 prior to depositing the same in thehopper 28. The figures arediagrammatic and it will be understood thatthe preparation of the fibrous clumps may take place in only one or twocontainers rather than the four shown.

In Fig. 1 a typical dye kettle 35 is shown in which the step of dyeingthe fibres 32 takes place in a suitable liquid dye 36 whereby anydesired color may be achieved to contrast with the color of the pileforming flock fibres 32. Fig. 2 illustrates the rinsing step wherein thedyed clumps 30 are suported in a suitable container 37 while rinsingliquid 38 is applied from sources such as the liquid conduits 39. If theclumps 30 are not to be dyed, the dyeing and rinsing steps abovementioned are supplanted by a liquid saturation step wherein the clumpsare immersedin liquid such as water until one hundred percent wet. Anysuitable dyes well known in the flock coating trade .may be used, theparticular dye not being a part of this invention so long as it isapplied in solution to render the fibres wet. Examples of dyes forvarious types of fibres may be found on pages 464 to 507 of AmericasFabrics by Bendure and Pfeiffer published in 1946 by MacMillan Companyof New York, NY.

In Fig. 3 the importantstep of producing about a fifty percent moisturecontent in clumps 30 is portrayed. A typical centrifuge 40 is shownhaving a drain 41, a perforated basket 42 and an axis of rotation 43for'the basket. The rate of revolution of the clumps 30 in basket 42controls the moisture content thereof and best results have been securedwith a predetermined moisture con tent of about fifty percent. Thus theclumps 30 are all in a half dry, half wet state and are thereaftermaintained in that state until deposited on the coating 25.

The clumps 30, however, are of many different sizes as they emerge fromthe dye kettle 35 and it is preferred to screen thesarne to secure apredetermined uniform size or a predetermined range of sizes. A typicalrotating screen 46 is provided having mesh 47 of any desired size forsegregating the smaller clumps from the larger clumps or passing onlyclumps of less than the area of each mesh 47 in the screen.' Thescreening operation takes place while the clumps are still wet and isfollowed by the introduction of a plurality of the screened clumps ofthe desired size into hopper 28.

As stated above, ornamentation by variation of texture is achieved bythe method of this invention even if the fibre clumps 30 and pile fibres32 are the same color. The clumps 30 may be all the same size anddropped fairly uniformly over the area of web 20 or may be of varioussizes and dropped by scattering at random over the area ofweb 20. Ineither case, the suede or velvetlike appearance of the pile, formed bythe upstanding tips of the erect flock fibres 32 will contrast withtheappearance of the clumps 30 in which the recumbent fibres arebunched, matted, felted or otherwise laid substantially horizontallyrather than vertically.

Unlike the appearance and feel of an article such as a tufted bedspreador the like, it should be noted that the article produced by thisinvention is not only predominately pile and subordinately clump, butthe clumps are formed of interlocked, intermingled short flock fibres.Such fibres are often microscopic in length for example, onethirty-second of an inch or-smaller and resemble powder when dry. Whenpartially embedded .in a heat set adhesive, and after passing throughthe heat setting temperatures, the clumps 30 have a smooth, unnappedfeel difficult to describe but not resembling the feel and appearance ofordinary fabrics known heretofore.- They also have a lustre, especiallywhen dyed, which differs from the lustre of the pile in that the fibresof the clumps-are smoothed down and reflect light diflEerently than dothe close packed tips-of the pile fibres.

As shown in Fig. 6 one embodiment of the product of this inventioncomprises the flocked fabric 50, having a base fabric 51, an adhesivecoating or layer 52 which has beenpermanently set by heat, amultiplicity of erect flock fibres 53 forming a short pile over most ofthe area of the coating 52 and .a plurality of areas of intermingled andinterlocked fibrous clumps 54. The fabric 50 not only presents adifferent appearance and texture from known fabrics, but ischaracterized by the fact that the clumps 54 will not fall out and areso firmly secured that they will remain on the fabric as long as thepile 53 so remains. In the embodiment shown, the clumps 54 vary in size,are scattered more or less at random and are preferably in a colorcontrasting to the color of the background formed by the fibres 53.

Another embodiment of the product of the invention is shown in Fig. 7wherein the fabric 60 includes a base fabric 61, a heat set adhesivelayer 62, flock fibres 63 forming a strip of pile and clumps 64 forminga contrasting strip. Such a pattern may be obtained by providing spacedapertures in the screen 29, across the web 20, whereby aligned rows ofclosely spaced clumps are deposited and pileis formed only in the spacebetween such rows.

In Fig. 8 an enlarged cross sectional view of a preferred type of fabricof this invention is shown. The clumps 30. are embedded in the adhesivecoating 25 as far as, and usually further than,--the lower tips of thepile fibres and the adhesive has set in and around the lower portions ofthe clumps to secure a tight hold on the clump. It is possible that theheat setting oven I bakes the fibres in the clump into a closely bondedmass, because they are wet upon entering the oven, but in any case thereis little-nap to the finished clumps and water does-not tend to loosenthe fibres of the clump or loosen the clump from the fabric.

It will be apparent that there are many other ornamental designs thatcan be achieved by various patterns of deposits of the uncolored orcolored clumps such as 30 with relation to the pile fibres 32. In factit is possible to wholly cover a base fabric with such clumps or to per-For example, in Fig 9, a material 70isshown in which a lace likebasefabric 71 is partially covered with spots of adhesive according to apredetermined pattern and clumps 74 with a predetermined moisturecontent of about fifty percent are deposited on the spots of adhesive.As also shown in Fig. 9, the lace like fabric 71, or any other sheet,web or article face, may be entirely covered with clumps of variegatedcolors such as at 76 and 77 to form a novel variegated design. No piletexture at all is used in the design of Fig. 9 and it will be obviousthat the sheet or web such as at 71 may be flexible or of rigid materialinasmuch as any suitable face or surface may be decorated in accordancewith the invention by depositing wet clumps of flock fibres on anadhesive coating and then setting the adhesive.

The fibres in the clumps such as 30 tend to be initially parallel toeach other since they are usually cut from multiple parallel strands offilament. When half wet the fibres may continue to be somewhat paralleland upon being deposited on the adhesive coating, tend to make adepression therein with the adhesive mushrooming up all around the baseof the clump. In addition there is a wick-like action or capillaryaction whereby the adhesive is drawn up between and around the fibres ofthe clump as it is also drawn up and around each vertical flock fibre.This action is depicted in Fig. 8 to illustrate that the recumbentfibres which remain in the clumps after the heat setting operation areeither firmly interlocked under other fibres of the clump, or have someportion thereof firmly bonded to the adhesive. The appearance and feelof the clumps is somewhat similar to the appearance and feel of brocadein that the upper face of the clump is slightly harsh or hard due to theembedding of some part of the upper fibres in the set adhesive.

The half wet, half dry clumps themselves are an article of manufacturewhich may be shipped in suitable humidity controlled containers forapplication to adhesive coated surfaces at remote points by converters.

I use the term recumbent to describe the position of the flock fibres inthe above described clumps after the clumps have been deposited on theadhesive coating, binder material or the like, meaning thereby that thefibres are lying down rather than vertical and upstanding.

I use the term half wet, half dry to mean that the clumps are aboutmidway between oven dry and 100% saturated, the moisture content thusbeing about fifty percent of the wet weight.

I claim:

1. A method of producing an improved flocked pile fabric which includesthe steps of depositing a plurality of individual clumps of fibres,while wet, on a heat settable adhesively coated base fabric so that thelower portion of each said wet clump is firmly secured to the adhesivecoating, with the fibres thereof adhered to each other solely bymoisture and all substantially recumbent, then depositing pile formingflock fibres upon said adhesively coated and clump-carrying base fabricand causing said pile fibres to stand erectly on end in the areasthereof surrounding said wet clumps with said ends firmly secured tosaid adhesive coating and then removing any unsecured pile formingfibres from, and heat setting, said adhesive.

2. The method of making a patterned flocked pile fabric which comprisesthe steps of first forming a plurality of separate clumps, or bundles,of flock fibres of a predetermined range of sizes and a predetermineddegree of bond; then depositing said clumps, or bundles, with the bondedflock fibres thereof in recumbent position and firmly secured lengthwiseon a heat settable, adhesively coated base fabric in a predeterminedpattern and then depositing pile forming fibres on said base fabric tocomplete said pattern prior to the distributing, erection and heatsetting of said pile forming fibres thereon.

3. A method as specified in claim 2 wherein the step of forming saidclumps, or bundles of fibres, includes the steps of first liquid dyeingsaid clumps to a color contrasting with the color of said pile formingfibres and then only about half drying said clumps to a predeterminedmoisture content of about fifty percent, said moisture providing saidbond.

4. A method for ornamenting fabric with contrasting textured patternportions which method comprises the steps of depositing a plurality ofindividual wet clumps of intermingled fibres in accordance with apredetermined design pattern on a heat settable, adhesively coated basefabric to secure a firm grip thereon with said fibres bonded to eachother solely by moisture and position, then depositing a plurality ofindividual pile forming fibres on said base fabric; then causing thelower ends of said pile fibres to secure a firm grip on said adhesivelycoated fabric with the fibres erect thereabove in pile formation betweenand around said clumps and in accordance with said predetermined designpattern and then heat setting said adhesive to permanently bond saidclumps and fibres to said fabric.

5. A continuous method for ornamenting fabric with designs ofcontrasting color and texture which method comprises the steps ofdepositing wet clumps of intermingled fibres on a moving web of heatsettable, adhesively coated base fabric, in accordance with anornamental pattern and with the fibres of the clump recumbent, thendepositing pile forming flock fibres in a color contrasting to the colorof said clumps, on said moving web of fabric to complete said ornamentalpattern and then erecting said flock pile fibres to vertical pileposition and heat setting said adhesive while on said moving web.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a fabric comprising a base materialwith a layer of binder material thereon and ornamented by a firmlysecured design having contrasting portions, one portion of said designbeing formed by the tips of a multiplicity of upstanding, closely spacedflock fibres of suede or velvet-like texture, each having one endembedded in said binder material, and the remaining portion of saiddesign being formed by a plurality of clumps of intermingled andinterlocked recumbent fibres of smooth, unnapped brocade-like texture,each clump having its under fibres embedded lengthwise in said bindermaterial.

7. An article of manufacture as specified in claim 6 wherein the saidflock fibres predominate as to area in said design and are in a basecolor while said clumps of fibres are subordinate in said design and arein a color contrasting to said base color.

8. An article of manufacture as specified in claim 6 wherein said clumpsof fibres are of various sizes and colors and scattered across the areaoccupied by said flock fibres to produce a random, variegated design.

9. An article of manufacture as specified in claim 6 wherein said clumpsof fibres are closely spaced to each other in a stripe across saidfabric and said clumps are of various colors to variegate said stripe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS574,332 Johnston Dec. 29, 1896 2,128,811 Foster Aug. 30, 1938 2,162,778Kent June 20, 1939 2,173,032 Wintermute Sept. 12, 1939 2,217,126 Mestonet a1. Oct. 8, 1940 2,328,904 Hiers Sept. 7, 1943 2,563,457 Dolbey Aug.7, 1951

1. A METHOD OF PRODUCING AN IMPROVED FLOCKED PILE FABRIC WHICH INCLUDESTHE STEPS OF DEPOSITING A PLURALITY OF INDIVIDUAL CLUMPS OF FIBRES,WHILE WET, ON A HEAT SETTABLE ADHESIVELY COATED BASE FABRIC SO THAT THELOWER PORTION OF EACH SAID WET CLUMP IS FIRMLY SECURED TO THE ADHESIVECOATING, WITH THE FIBRES THEREOF ADHERED TO EACH OTHER SOLELY BYMOISTURE AND ALL SUBSTANTIALLY RECUMBENT, THEN DEPOSITING PILE FORMINGFLOCK FIBRES UPON SAID ADHESIVELY COATED AND CLUMP-CARRYING BASE FABRICAND CAUSING SAID PILE FIBRES TO STAND ERECTLY ON END IN THE AREASTHEREOF SURROUNDING SAID WET CLUMPS WITH SAID ENDS FIRMLY SECURED TOSAID ADHESIVE COATING AND THEN REMOVING ANY UNSECURED PILE FORMINGFIBRES FROM, AND HEAT SETTING, SAID ADHESIVE.